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Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals
by Swami Krishnananda

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Table of Contents

  • Chapters
  1. What is Religion?
  2. Sun – The Eye of the World
  3. Siva – The Mystic Night
  4. Rama – The Apotheosis of Human Perfection
  5. Sankara – The Genius
  6. Sivananda – The Fire of Sannyasa
  7. Knowledge As a Means to Freedom
  8. Veda Vyasa – The Paragon of Power and Wisdom
  9. Saint – A Blend of Righteousness and Godliness
  10. Sri Krishna – The Purna-Avatara
  11. Lord Ganesa – The Remover of Obstacles
  12. Sri Radha – The Divine Mystery
  13. Gurudev Sivananda – Physician of the Soul
  14. The Esoteric Significance of the Devi Mahatmya
  15. The Sport of the Infinite
  16. Yajna – Quintessence of the Culture of India
  17. Lord Skanda – The Concentrated Divine Energy
  18. The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita
  19. Lord Dattatreya – Master Par Excellence
  20. Christ-Consciousness
  21. The Significance of Ekadasi
  • Appendix

Publishers' Note to the Third Edition

As time passes, contexts change and the relevance of a book written many years ago gains new significance. So it is with The Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals.

In this 21st century, as people have fully merged into consumerism, the intention and drive behind celebrating festivals has completely been erased, making them yet another occasion for celebration in the secular sense, an occasion to indulge in more clothes, more food, more adornments, filling the moment which was intended for spiritual ascent with noise and material—both antithetical to the original intention.

This book is intended for anyone who wants to go deeper into why festivals came to be, their historical origin and, critically, their spiritual significance. Those who are already on the path spiritual will find terrific acceleration to their endeavors, enhanced meaning to their understanding thus far, and a new spirit to their pace. Others will find a clarification for why they need to alter their approach to 'celebrating' these moments in history that repeat year after year. It is very striking, even if obvious, that these events repeat year after year as if God Himself is giving us yet another chance to renew our relationship with life.

This book is a compilation of the lectures on religious festivals, delivered by Swami Krishnananda on different occasions. Swamiji has only briefly hinted at the 'story' behind the festival while his effort has been entirely to stress the significance of the rituals of a festival for the spiritual ascension of man. As the Publisher's Note to the second edition rightly observed, “There is a meaning behind every act, or ritual, in the religious field, even as there is a hidden purpose behind the implementation of any project or the doing of any work. Rarely are religions seen to awaken themselves to the spirit that they are expected to convey, the living flame which they enshrine and without which they remain forms without content.”

Since these were lectures in their original form, the transcription seeks to retain the spoken word form in order to transport the enriching, divine flavour of Swamiji's words and feelings to the reader. This is experienced distinctively in the lectures in the Appendix, which carry with them extra fire and intensity, especially since the subject matter itself was such.

We are pleased to release this third edition of Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals on the auspicious occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Mahasamadhi of Revered Sri Swami Krishnanandaji. May his blessings and grace fill us even as we soak in the words of his messages.

—THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
Shivanandanagar,
23rd November 2006.